Mumbai
terror attacks similar to 1993 New York Landmarks plot
07 Dec 2008 The meticulous planning and execution of the Mumbai terror
attack, which has left the country's security agencies scurrying for cover,
might not be as original as it is presumed to be, because of its eerie
resemblance to the 1993 New York Landmarks Plot, hatched by Al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh].

Gunmen
were on drugs drugged during Mumbai attacks
03 Dec 2008 Those responsible for last week's attacks in Mumbai fueled
their terror binge with cocaine and hallucinogens, Indian officials say.
"We found injections containing traces of cocaine and LSD left behind
by the terrorists and later found drugs in their blood," one official
told London newspaper the Telegraph. Syringes and other drug paraphernalia
were found on the scene of the horrific crimes. The drugs help explain
how the 10 young men were able to fight hundreds of Indian commandos for
50 hours without stopping to eat or sleep. One militant fought for
6 hours despite a severe wound to his thigh before later being killed
by commando fire.

Arrests
made in Mumbai terror attack, but one may be Indian undercover officer,
igniting controversy --Police were still investigating how the 10
gunmen obtained the SIM cards. 06 Dec 2008 Senior police officers
in Indian Kashmir, which has been at the heart of tensions between India
and Pakistan, demanded the release of arrested officer Mukhtar Ahmed,
saying he was one of their own and had been involved in infiltrating Kashmiri
militant groups. The implications of Ahmed's involvement -- that Indian
agents may have been in touch with the militants and perhaps supplied
the SIM cards used in the attacks -- added to the growing list of questions
over India's ill-trained security forces, which are widely blamed for
not thwarting the attacks. Earlier Saturday, Calcutta police announced
the arrests of Ahmed and Tauseef Rahman, who allegedly bought SIM cards
by using fake documents, including identification cards of dead people.

Arrested
cop was deputed to sneak into Lashkar 07 Dec 2008 The trail of
the SIM cards recovered from terrorists in Mumbai has led to a J&K policeman
who was arrested by police in New Delhi, taking the lid off an undercover
operation that had successfully sneaked deep inside Lashkar ranks.
Mukhtar Ahmed--a 'follower' in District Special Branch of J-K police in
Srinagar district--had been deputed for an undercover operation. Sources
reveal that the modus operandi was simple: he had managed to sneak inside
the Lashkar ranks and become one of their trust-worthy aides. It is learnt
that a Lashkar operative needed SIM cards for their men and sought Ahmed’s
help, who contacted Tausif Rehman based in Kolkata. And when the police
found out that a SIM card recovered from a Mumbai attack site was one
of the 22 Rehman sold to Ahmed, they immediately arrested both.

Two
arrested for links to Mumbai terror attacks
06 Dec 2008 In the first breakthrough in Mumbai terror attacks, the Kolkata
Police arrested two persons including a constable from Jammu and Kashmir
police for allegedly buying SIM cards on fake identities, three of which
were used by Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in Mumbai during the November
26 strikes. Constable Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh, a resident of Rainawari in
downtown Srinagar, was picked up along with a sub-inspector from state
police's Crime Branch from Chanakyapuri on Friday, official sources said.
The two had come to the national capital in connection with a case.
Sheikh, who is attached to office of Inspector General (Crime) in the
state S M Sahai, is alleged by Kolkata Police to have brought SIM cards
using fake identity cards. He was placed under arrest while the sub-inspector
was released. Sheikh, 35, who married a local girl in Kolkata, was arrested
on the interrogation of Tauseef Rehman, a resident of Tiljala Road here,
nabbed from Howrah Railway station, STF head of Kolkata Police Rajiv Kumar
told reporters here.

India
Police Arrest Two New Suspects in Mumbai Attacks --Police
Now Probing Possibility of Some Level of Indian Involvement
06 Dec 2008 The ongoing probe into last week's Mumbai attacks widened
late Friday night as Indian police began investigating the possibility
of local support groups with the arrest of two new suspects in New Delhi
and the eastern city of Calcutta. Police arrested two men identified as
Tausif Rehman, 28, and Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh, 35, for buying cell phone
cards using forged documents. Officials now want to investigate whether
the gunmen in Mumbai used these cards to make calls during their attacks
last week.

Police:
Man arrested in Mumbai probe is cop 06 Dec
2008 One of the two men arrested for illegally buying mobile phone cards
used by gunmen in the Mumbai attacks is a counter-insurgency police
officer who may have been on an undercover mission, security officials
said Saturday. The officials in Indian Kashmir demanded that police in
Calcutta, where the suspect is being held, arrange for his quick release.
Only two people have been arrested since the end of the bloody siege that
killed 171 people. Indian officials have blamed the attacks on Pakistani
extremists. A senior police official in Indian Kashmir said one of them,
Mukhtar Ahmed, is part of a semiofficial counter-insurgency network whose
members are usually former Kashmiri militants... Tauseef Rahman, who was
also arrested, allegedly bought SIM cards _ memory chip 'smart cards'
that store information including the cell phone's number, address book
and text messages _ by providing fake documents, including identification
cards of dead people, Kumar said Saturday. Rahman, of West Bengal state,
later sold them to Ahmed, Kumar said. Both men were arrested Friday and
charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy. The SIM cards were later used
by the gunmen. Police said they were still investigating how the 10
gunmen obtained the SIM cards, and declined to offer more details.

J&K
cop, Kolkata aide arrested for SIM cards used in Mumbai attack
07 Dec 2008 The Kolkata Police on Saturday arrested a J&K police constable
from New Delhi after one of his SIM cards was allegedly used by terrorists
in Mumbai. Mukhtar Ahmed Sheikh had, over a period of time, collected
more than 35 SIM cards. Another man, Tausif Rehman, who obtained the cards
for Ahmed, has been arrested in Kolkata.

Details
emerge on CIA terror plot warnings 05 Dec
2008 Indian intelligence sources have confirmed to The Hindu that the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) delivered two warnings of an impending
terror attack on Mumbai in September. India is also hoping for assistance
in accessing electronic evidence on phone calls made and received by the
terrorists during the attack -- which provided what one police described
to The Hindu as a "running commentary" on the operation.
Forensic experts at the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have determined
that the calls were routed through voice-over-internet service providers
based in New Jersey and Vienna.

Interpol
likely to join probe into Mumbai attacks
05 Dec 2008 Interpol, the international police organisation, is expected
to join investigations in the Mumbai terror attacks as the probe has begun
acquiring an international dimension. Government managers on Thursday
asserted that Interpol’s assistance was actively under consideration with
the international agency already making a formal offer to despatch a small
team of investigators to India to help with the terror attack probe. Ongoing
probes in the attacks have also revealed that the terrorists had used
satellite phones purchased in Karachi besides using international SIM
cards purchased in Vienna and New Jersey for their mobile handsets.

Police:
Mumbai gunman's mobile SIM card possibly from New Jersey04
Dec 2008 The sole Mumbai gunman [Azam Amir Kasab] to be taken alive has
said he was paid 150,000 Pakistani rupees – about £1,300 or $1,900 – for
his part in the attacks that killed nearly 200 people, according to police.
Police are also investigating a possible link to the United States
– a mobile SIM card found with the terrorists which possibly came from
New Jersey. Police interrogators have told The Times that they are poised
to settle the matter of Kasab's background through the use of "narcoanalysis"
– a controversial technique, banned in most democracies, where the
subject is injected with a "truth serum". Deven Bharti, a deputy police
commissioner in Mumbai and one of the interrogators, said that there was
"no doubt" that Kasab will be subjected to "narcoanalysis". The drug –
probably sodium pentothal – will be administered through a drip and will
lull Kasab into a trance-like state.

Mumbai
attacks: Indian operative 'helped Pakistani militants'
05 Dec 2008 A Pakistani militant group used an Indian operative as far
back as 2007 to scout targets for the elaborate plot against India's financial
capital, authorities have said. The discovery is a blow to Indian officials
who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists. As
investigators sought to unravel the attack on Mumbai, stepping up questioning
of the lone captured gunman, airports across India were put on high alert
amid fresh warnings that terrorists planned to hijack an aircraft.

Mumbai:
Was it Indeed an Islamic Terror Attack? Were Muslims even Involved?
By Julaybib 05 Dec 2008 If the Mumbai terrorists' background was consistent
with the single captured survivor, then the terrorist actions were not
performed by Muslims, but by mercenaries, that is soldiers of fortune,
hired criminals, paid to murder and terrorize, for non-religious reasons,
and funded by unknown criminal gangs for purposes also unknown... This
certainly suggests that the criminal gangs who hired the mercenary terrorists
in Mumbai, were like their soldiers, motivated also by financial gain,
as criminal gangs tend to be so engaged, and that the gangs themselves
were hired by perhaps non-Pakistani actors, with ambitions for control
of the government of Pakistan.

Mumbai
militants used Pakistani soil: Rice
07 Dec 2008 Pakistani territory was used to stage recent attacks on the
Indian city of Mumbai, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on
Sunday, as she again urged Islamabad to help bring perpetrators to justice.
Pakistan has called for India to back up its charges of Pakistani involvement
with proof. But in interviews with U.S. television networks, Rice said
there was no doubt the militants behind the Mumbai attack had operated
from Pakistani soil, although she said probably "non-state" actors [CIA]
were involved.

Pakistan
raids camp of group blamed for Mumbai 07 Dec 2008 Pakistani security
forces on Sunday raided a camp used by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), two sources
said, in a strike against the militant group blamed by India for last
month's deadly attacks on Mumbai. Local man Nisar Ali told Reuters the
operation began in the afternoon in Shawai on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad,
the capital of the Pakistani side of disputed Kashmir region.

Hoax
call to Zardari "put Pakistan on war alert" 06 Dec 2008 Pakistan
put its forces on high alert after someone pretending to be India's foreign
minister made a phone call to President Asif Ali Zardari threatening war
after the Mumbai attacks began, Dawn newspaper said on Saturday. "It's
true," a diplomat with knowledge of the exchanges told Reuters when asked
whether the report was correct.

Report:
India Warned of Airborne Attacks --New Intelligence Puts Indian Airports
On High Alert, Unexploded Grenade Found At Hospital 04 Dec 2008 Local
media reports quoted the Indian air force chief Thursday as saying authorities
had received warnings of a possible airborne terrorist attack. Major airports
across the country were put on high alert after receiving the information
from intelligence agencies about possible aerial strikes.

Rice
tells Pakistan to act against militant threat --US Secretary of State
calls for 'resolve and urgency' 04 Dec 2008 Pakistan came under renewed
pressure yesterday to respond to accusations over the Mumbai terror attacks
when the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, called for "resolve
and urgency" in bringing those responsible to justice.

Explosives
found, defused at Mumbai railway station: police
03 Dec 2008 Indian police on Wednesday discovered and defused explosives
at Mumbai's main railway station, left by militants [planted ?] who struck
the city last week. The situation was "under control" and a bomb disposal
unit had defused the devices, anti-terrorism chief K.P. Raghuvashi told
AFP.